Charge your AirPods with charging case and learn about battery life

Learn how to charge your AirPods with charging case, and how to get longer battery life for your AirPods.

To charge your AirPods, put them in your case. Your case holds multiple, full charges for your AirPods, so you can charge on the go. To keep your AirPods charged, put them in the case when you're not using them.

To charge your case, plug the Lightning cable that came with your AirPods into the Lightning connector on your case. Then plug the other end of the cable into a USB charger or port. You can charge your case with or without your AirPods inside. You can charge fastest when you use an iPhone or iPad USB charger or plugging into your Mac.

You can charge your Wireless Charging Case with a Qi-certified charging mat or with the Lightning connector. Be sure to place your case on the charger with the status light facing up and with the lid closed. The status light should show the current charge level for 8 seconds. To see the charge status while charging your AirPods, see Check the charge status.

Learn about battery life

When the AirPod battery charge is low, you hear a tone in one or both AirPods. You hear the tone one time when the battery charge is low, and a second time right before the AirPods turn off.

Here's what you can expect with AirPods (2nd generation):

With multiple charges in your case, you get more than 24 hours of listening time,1 or up to 18 hours of talk time.2

Your AirPods can get up to 5 hours of listening time3 or 3 hours of talk time on a single charge.4

If you charge your AirPods for 15 minutes in your case, you get up to 3 hours of listening time5 or up to 2 hours of talk time.6

Here's what you can expect with AirPods (1st generation):

Your AirPods can get up to 5 hours of listening time or 2 hours of talk time on a single charge.

With multiple charges in your case, you get more than 24 hours of listening time, or up to 11 hours of talk time.

If you charge your AirPods for 15 minutes in your case, you get up to 3 hours of listening time or over an hour of talk time.

Check the charge status

You can check the charge status of your AirPods with charging case with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.

On your iOS device

On your iPhone, open your case lid with your AirPods inside and hold your case close to your device. Wait a few seconds to see the charge status of your AirPods with charging case.

You can also check the charge status of your AirPods with charging case with the Batteries widget on your iOS device. The charge for your case appears only when at least one AirPod is in the case.

On your Mac

Open the lid or take your AirPods out of the case.

Click the menu in the menu bar.

Hover the pointer over your AirPods with charging case in the menu.

Learn about the status light

Wireless Charging Case: The status light is on the front of the case.

Charging Case: The status light in your charging case sits between the spaces for your AirPods:

If your AirPods are in your case and the lid is open, then the light shows the charge status of your AirPods. When your AirPods aren't in your case, the light shows the status of your case. Green means fully charged, and amber means less than one full charge remains.

When you connect your Wireless Charging Case to a charger, or place it on a Qi-certified charging mat, the status light will stay on for 8 seconds. If the light flashes white, your AirPods are ready to set up with one of your devices. If the light flashes amber, you might need to set up your AirPods again.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Volume was set to 50%. Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge while playing audio until the first AirPod stopped playback. The drained AirPods were charged to 100 percent, then audio playback was resumed until the first AirPod stopped playback. This cycle was repeated until both the AirPods and charging case were fully discharged. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. Volume was set to 50%. Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge with a cellular phone call until the first AirPod stopped playing call audio. The drained AirPods were charged to 100 percent, then the cellular phone call was restarted until the first AirPod stopped playing call audio. This cycle was repeated until both the AirPods and charging case were fully discharged. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Volume was set to 50%. Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge while playing audio until the first AirPod stopped playback. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. Volume was set to 50%. Testing consisted of full AirPods battery discharge with a cellular phone call until the first AirPod stopped playing call audio. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Volume was set to 50%. 15-Minute charge testing conducted with drained AirPods that were charged for 15 minutes, then audio playback was started until the first AirPod stopped playback. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2019 using preproduction AirPods (2nd generation), Charging Case, and Wireless Charging Case units and software paired with iPhone Xs Max units and prerelease software. Volume was set to 50%. 15-Minute charge testing conducted with drained AirPods that were charged for 15 minutes, then a cellular phone call was started until the first AirPod stopped playing call audio. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage, and many other factors.